On Wednesday morning flights on US website Hopper.com were advertised for as little as $A577 return from Australian cities to Los Angeles — and travellers were quick to snap up the “flash sale” bargain which would apparently run across a number of days or until tickets had run out.

They were also available on skyscanner.com.au, which had one way fares reduced to $A286 between August and November and again in January and March — a dirt cheap opportunity to escape the chill of the Australian winter for brighter surroundings.

The page advertising Qantas’ dirt cheap sale. Picture: Hopper.com Source: Supplied

But by 11:30am, the sale had been swiftly removed and left lucky ticket holders scratching their heads. “Update: Qantas ended this sale at 11:30am, Sydney time, after more than 12 hours,” read a message. So what just happened?

“Skyscanner displayed lower than average flights from Australia to Los Angeles as a result of a technical glitch from a partner. Skyscanner doesn’t offer sale fares and the glitch has since been rectified,” a spokesperson for Skyscanner told news.com.au.

A spokesperson for Qantas confirmed with news.com.au that the sale prices were indeed a mistake.

“There was a glitch that impacted third party USA-based online booking systems, as we made some fare changes effective 1 July for travel originating in Australia.”

“These mistake fares were incorrectly offered and have been removed from sale. The glitch was fixed at 11.30am AEST (yesterday) and we’re currently following up affected bookings.”

As to whether the sold flights would be honoured, Qantas told news.com.au:

“We are contacting affected customers impacted by the glitch.”